Bahá'u'lláh's father dreams that his son is swimming in a sea with multitudes of fish clinging to the strands of His hair. He relates this dream to a soothsayer, who prophesies that Bahá'u'lláh will achieve supremacy over the world. [DB199–20]

The Báb is placed in the care of His maternal uncle, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí, Khál-i-A`zam (the Most Great Uncle). He is a leading merchant of Shíráz and is the first, after the Letters of the Living, to embrace the new Cause in that city. He is one of the Seven Martyrs of Tihrán. [BBD14]

According to Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl-i-Gulpáygání, the Báb was still an infant and had not yet been weaned when His father passed away. [DB72]

The Báb returns to Búshihr. He sends Quddús to Shíráz with a letter addressed to His uncle Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí who embraces his Nephew's Cause, the first, after the Letters of the Living, to do so. The Báb also entrusts Quddús with a treatise for him entitled dhasá'il-i-Sab`ih (`the Seven Qualifications') and promises him his impending martyrdom. (He gave his life as on of the Seven Martyrs of Tehran, see 1850 19 or 20 Feb.) [B77–8; DB142–3; MS2, GPB9-10]

B77 and GPB10 say the Báb arrived in Búshihr in February - March.

SSBH1p23 and BBRSM216 say 15 May, 1845.

Before leaving on pilgrimage the Báb had stated that He would return to Karbalá and asked His followers to congregate there. An explanation in part for the large following that have gathered there is the messianic expectation associated with the year 1261, a thousand years after the Twelfth Imám's disappearance in 260 A.H.. This gathering is perceived as a threat by the authorities. [BBRSM15, 45, 216; DB157–8; SBBH1p23, 32]

The Báb changes His plan to meet His followers in Karbalá and instructs them to go to Isfahán instead. A number abandon Him, regarding this as badá', `alteration of divine will'. [BBRSM16; DB158; MH125; SBBH23]

Some speculate that He did not go to Karbalá to avoid conflict and sedition. Many Bábís had gone to Karbalá armed in preparation for holy war, `jihád'. [BBRSM21–2; SBBH1:23]

The Báb is told to attend a Friday gathering at the Mosque of Vakíl to appease the hostility and the curiosity of some of the residents of Shíráz and to clarify His position. The exact date of His attendance is unknown. He makes a public pronouncement that He is neither the representative of the Hidden Imám nor the gate to him, that is, His station is higher. [B94–8; DB151–7]

He is released to the custody of His uncle, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid 'Alí. [DB151, LTDT13]

see DB152 for pictures of the above mosque.

Upon hearing the news of the confinement of the Báb, Mullá Husayn and his companions leave Isfahán where they have been awaiting further instructions and travel to Shíráz. Mullá Husayn is able to meet secretly with the Báb several times in the house of His uncle. The Báb sends word to the remainder of His followers in Isfahán to leave and travel to Shíráz. [B102–3; MH128–9]

After a time the presence of Mullá Husayn in Shíráz threatens to cause civil unrest. The Báb instructs him to go to Khurásán via Yazd and Kirmán and tells the rest of the companions to return to Isfahán. [B90, 102–3; DB170; MH130]

This time, described as the `most fecund period' of the Báb's ministry, marks the birth of the Bábí community. [B89–90]

The Sháh sends one of the most learned men in Persia, Siyyid Yahyáy-i-Dárábí, surnamed Vahíd, to investigate the claims of the Báb. He becomes a follower of the Báb. As a result of his conversion most of the inhabitants of the town of Nayríz later become Bábís. [B90–4; BBD216; BBRSM41; CH21; DB171–7; GPB11–12; TN7–8]

Another learned scholar, Muhammad-`Alíy-i-Zanjání, surnamed Hujjat, becomes a believer after reading only one page of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'. Several thousand of his fellow townspeople become Bábís. [B100–2; BBD111; BBRSM16; GPB12]

Mírzá Ahmad-i-Azghandí, yet another learned man, who had compiled traditions and prophecies concerning the expected Revelation, becomes a believer as well. [GPB12–13]

The Báb bequeaths all His possessions to His mother and His wife and reveals a special prayer for His wife to help her in times of sorrow He tells his wife of His impending martyrdom. He moves to the house of His uncle Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. He tells the Bábís in Shíráz to go to Isfahán. [GPB14; KB21–2; TB103–5, LTDT13]

See CH87–90, SES25-26, DH45–6 and RB2:208–9 for details of the wedding.

For the story of Munírih Khánum's life see RB2:204–9.

She was the daughter of Mírzá Muhammad-`Alíy-i-Nahrí by his second wife. [BBD165; GPB130; RB2:204]

See BBD 166, BKG340–1, DB208–9 and RB2:203–4 for the story of her conception.

See BKG344, MA112–13 and RB2:206–7 for the story of her first marriage.

The marriage resulted in nine children, five of whom died in childhood: Husayn Effendi (died 1887, aged two), Mihdí (died aged two-and-a-half), Túbá, Fu'ádiyyih and Rúhangíz. Four daughters grew to adulthood. The oldest of these was Díyá'iyyih, who married Mírzá Hádí Shírází in 1895. Shoghi Effendi was their eldest child. The second daughter, Túbá Khánum, married Mírzá Muhsin Afnán. The third daughter of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Rúhá, married Mírzá Jalál, the son of Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan, the King of Martyrs. The fourth daughter, Munavvar, married Mírzá Ahmad. [ABMM]

The birth of Shoghi Effendi, in the house of `Abdu'lláh Páshá. [BBD208; BKG359; DH60, 214; GBF2]

He is descended from both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh: his mother is the eldest daughter of `Abdu'l-Bahá; his father is an Afnán, a grandson of Hájí Mírzá `Abu'l-Qásim, a cousin of the mother of the Báb and a brother of His wife. [CB280; GBF2]

He is the Ghusn-i-Mumtáz, the Chosen Branch. [BBD87]

`Shoghi' means `one who longs'. [CB281]

`Abdu'l-Bahá commands everyone, even Shoghi Effendi's father, to add the title `Effendi' after his name. [CB281; GBF2]

`Abdu'l-Bahá gives him the surname Rabbání in the early years of his study in Haifa so that he will not be confused with his cousins, who are all called Afnán. Rabbání is also used by Shoghi Effendi's brothers and sister. [BBD191–2; DH60–1]

from the main catalogue

Bahá'í Faith: Prophecy and Conversion, by Brian J. Mistler (2001). Results of a field study of Baha'is in the United States and Australia which demonstrate that family connections and social teachings are greater incentives to conversion than prophecy is.
[about]

Condition of non-Bahá'í Relatives after Death, The, by Universal House of Justice (1991). Four questions: Do the non-Bahá'í parents of believers become Bahá'ís in the next world? What is the definition of "kin"? What is the requisite spiritual state of the believer? What conditions are associated with the divine bounty? [about]

Husband and Wife, Relationship between, by Universal House of Justice, in Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986: The Third Epoch of the Formative Age (1996). The "functional" divisions between husband and wife in the Baha'i Writings should be considered in the light of the general principle of equality between the sexes. [about]

Prayer for Fathers, by Abdu'l-Bahá, in Star of the West, 2:19 (1921). Tablet revealed for Albert Windust, first American publisher of the Baha'i Writings and founder of Star of the West, on the occasion of his father's passing. [about]

Yahyá, Mírzá, by Moojan Momen, in The Bahá'í Encyclopedia (2009). On the younger half-brother of Bahá’u’lláh, later his opponent, known as Subh-i-Azal, described by Shoghi Effendi as "the arch-breaker of the Covenant of the Báb." [about]

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